Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday con-firmed reports that Sen. Panfilo Lacson is already out of the country and will not be attending the remaining session days this week, including the crucial “voting” on the ethics case of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., which Lacson first exposed.

“He wrote me a letter asking that he cannot attend the sessions in the meantime because he is abroad. I don’t know where he is,” Enrile told reporters in an interview..... MORE

Settling the issue of whether Gloria Arroyo can appoint the next chief justice should be simple and one that would put a stop to all these arguments coming from so-called legal and constitutional experts.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), having already met to open the nominations for the seat of the next chief justice, should submit the list to the sitting chief executive and if she does appoint one before the campaign period, such a move will now become a justiciable issue, upon which the high court will have to come up with a decision on whether or not Gloria appointing a chief justice prior to the retirement of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato Puno is a violation of the Constitution...... MORE

Surveys — as far as I am concerned — are no longer reliable, not when their findings are completely disconnected with the situation on the ground, and not when what appears most important to these survey outfits — such as the Social Weather Stations (SWS)’s latest survey — are rushed for publication, just to show the public the rankings of the presidential candidates and the senatorial candidates, without publishing the demographics and the regional distribution and its voters’ findings.

Even more startling is the fact that there is merely two percent of undecided voters. Earlier, it was just one percent. At this time, the electorate’s mind is made up?.... MORE

SOUTHEAST OF MARJAH — Anger, frustration and a hunger for revenge are running high among US Marines as casualties mount on the frontline of the battle against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

On a base near Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, Marines are grieving the deaths of a sergeant and corporal killed by the remote-controlled bombs that have become the scourge of the long-running conflict.

Commanders try to keep the men’s rage in check, aware that winning over an Afghan public wary of the foreign military presence and furious about mounting civilian casualties is as crucial as any battlefield success..... MORE